In The Passionate Teacher, Ron Fried describes the Game of School (GOS) as what happens when teachers and students forsake intellectual work and instead engage in their classes as rituals. Take this opportunity to consider this chapter in light of some of the the other experiences that you've had this semester to answer at least three of the following questions:
What elements of the game of school are you seeing in your placements?
How have you seen teachers fight the game of school in their classes?
What features can you plan into your units that might discourage the GOS?
Finally, what impact will this description of the GOS have on your own approach to teaching as expressed in your teaching philosophy?
I personally have seen GOS appear in my high school. I notice a lot of students doing the bare minimum to get by. They act as if the classroom is a prison, they throw their backpacks down with such abandon when they enter the classroom and sink into their seats. Most of the students seem to enjoy socially interacting, but in regards to the class whether it is ecology or biology they seem to be going through the motions. The biology course especially seems to be extremely structured. The biology teachers work together to structure the course around the syllabus, following it tightly, creating tests that follow the expectations and questions outlined by the syllabus/unit plan. I feel like this (over) structure has possibly removed some of the creativity on the teacher's parts and has partly enabled the student disinterest. The class itself seems to focused on the test.
I feel like my middle school teacher has done a great job to fight the game of school. To her she goes out of the way to bring about change of pace in her classroom. She brings up interesting ways to present the information and keeps the students engaged. She stresses the importance of the information and passing the tests/assessments but not to the point that the adventure of learning that information is overshadowed by the test.
To discourage the GOS, I want to focus on engagement. I want to avoid the throwing the backpack down. I want my students to feel interested in what comes next in the day by planning enjoyable activities for my students. When the activities may be lacking, I want to plan hooks that pull the students in.
I am more aware of the GOS now after reading this. Since reading it, I will try to be more careful as to avoid falling into the GOS and make efforts to pull my students out of it as well.
least three of the following questions:
I personally have seen GOS appear in my high school. I notice a lot of students doing the bare minimum to get by. They act as if the classroom is a prison, they throw their backpacks down with such abandon when they enter the classroom and sink into their seats. Most of the students seem to enjoy socially interacting, but in regards to the class whether it is ecology or biology they seem to be going through the motions. The biology course especially seems to be extremely structured. The biology teachers work together to structure the course around the syllabus, following it tightly, creating tests that follow the expectations and questions outlined by the syllabus/unit plan. I feel like this (over) structure has possibly removed some of the creativity on the teacher's parts and has partly enabled the student disinterest. The class itself seems to focused on the test.
I feel like my middle school teacher has done a great job to fight the game of school. To her she goes out of the way to bring about change of pace in her classroom. She brings up interesting ways to present the information and keeps the students engaged. She stresses the importance of the information and passing the tests/assessments but not to the point that the adventure of learning that information is overshadowed by the test.
To discourage the GOS, I want to focus on engagement. I want to avoid the throwing the backpack down. I want my students to feel interested in what comes next in the day by planning enjoyable activities for my students. When the activities may be lacking, I want to plan hooks that pull the students in.
I am more aware of the GOS now after reading this. Since reading it, I will try to be more careful as to avoid falling into the GOS and make efforts to pull my students out of it as well.